


Come With Me If You Want To Live

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: T-2000 series [5]
Category: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), The Avengers (2012), The Terminator (1984), Thor (2011)
Genre: Alternate Future, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Crossover, F/M, Hydra, Terminator Darcy Lewis, Terminators, ignores Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 18:39:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2035788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a perfectly ordinary day, until the signal from HYDRA came through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come With Me If You Want To Live

**Author's Note:**

> _This is set approximately two years after 'Avoiding Obsolescence' and 'hang my hopes out on the line'._

**Come With Me If You Want To Live**

They were halfway through running a computer simulation, Jane gulping down a cup of hot coffee while Darcy played Angry Birds on her phone, when John suddenly said, “What the hell?”

Darcy looked up, scanning John’s expression. He was frowning, and Darcy identified confusion and wariness in the expression.

“What’s up?” Darcy asked, exiting the game and shoving her phone in her pocket.

“I’m not sure,” said John, still frowning. “Something’s interrupted the simulation. Take a look.”

He moved aside so that Darcy could scan the computer screen. There was a strange signal playing across the centre of the screen, and Darcy recognised it as the visual recording of an audio track.

“What’s that?” Jane asked, crowding in behind them.

“Does this computer have sound?” Darcy asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” said John, pausing the simulation and fiddling around with the computer’s controls. A moment later a strange sound filled the lab.

Darcy tilted her head, analysing the sound.

“What is that?” John asked, glancing at Darcy. Darcy didn’t answer.

_Encrypted message._

_Decrypt message._

_Decryption key needed._

Darcy ran through every decryption key in her memory banks, until finally, one of them worked.

“Yo, Darce,” said John, snapping his fingers in front of her eyes. “You okay in there?”

_Message decrypted: “Out of the shadows, into the light. HYDRA.”_

Darcy immediately searched her memory banks for the phrase ‘HYDRA’. A file popped up, and Darcy reviewed it.

“Oh, shit,” Darcy said aloud, blinking and focusing her gaze on John’s face.

“What, what is it?” John’s expression showed worry.

“How do we get rid of this thing?” Jane asked, leaning over the keyboard and trying to get rid of HYDRA’s signal, totally unaware of the danger she and John were in.

“Jane, I need you to step away from the computer and listen to me very carefully,” Darcy said calmly. “Now.”

_Primary objective: ensure continued existence through infiltration and assimilation into human society._

_Add new objective: ensure the survival of John Connor and Jane Foster._

_Objective added. Secondary objective now in place._

_Promote secondary objective to primary objective._

_Primary objective altered._

_Primary objective: ensure the survival of John Connor and Jane Foster._

“What?” Jane sent Darcy a confused glance, but stepped away from the computer.

“That noise you just heard is an encrypted signal,” Darcy told Jane and John, as her gaze scanned over the room, searching for weapons. She didn’t find any. “It was sent by an organisation named HYDRA.”

“HYDRA?” John’s brow furrowed. “Wait, wasn’t that the Nazi’s scientific division, that got up to all that freaky shit with super-serums and stuff?”

“Apparently it’s been underground all this time,” Darcy responded. “If I’m right, it’s infiltrated SHIELD, and the signal that was just sent out activated sleeper agents throughout SHIELD.”

“Holy shit,” said John, his eyes widening.

“You can’t possibly know that,” said Jane dubiously. “Darcy, it’s just a _noise._ It’s not–”

“Jane!” John ordered. “Shut up and listen to her, okay? There’s a lot you don’t know about Darcy, and we don’t have time to talk about it. If SHIELD is full of activated sleeper agents, we need to get out of here. Get out of the building, and get off the grid.” He looked at Darcy, and gave a brittle laugh. “God, it figures, every time my life is in danger one of you is around. Are you going to play the conquering hero, too?”

The question came out as sarcastic, especially the way John raised his eyebrows, but scanning John’s expression, Darcy could detect the anxiety hiding beneath the show of flippancy.

“My primary objective is to ensure the survival of John Connor and Jane Foster,” Darcy informed him. John’s smirk became a little more real.

“Oh, good, because our chances weren’t looking too great without you. So, you upgraded your primary objective, huh?”

“You and Jane are my mission,” Darcy agreed.

“Wait, John Connor? But your name is Roberts,” Jane said, looking confused.

“It used to be Connor,” said John, looking around, clearly scanning the room for potential weapons, and looking displeased when he didn’t find any. He had good instincts. “I created a false identity when I was fifteen, SHIELD decided to let me keep it when they hired me.”

“Come on, we need to get out of here,” Darcy commanded, heading for the door. “Stay behind me and do everything I say, understand?”

“You really think our lives are in danger?” Jane was finally starting to look worried.

“For fuck’s sake, Foster, just do as she says!” John exclaimed, grabbing Jane by the arm and dragging her after Darcy.

“But my research – if what you say is true, we can’t just leave it here for these people to find,” Jane protested.

John stopped dead.

“Shit,” he swore, and looked at Darcy. “She’s right. If a bunch of Nazis work out how to travel to other realms…”

Darcy calculated the most likely consequences of HYDRA obtaining a valid mean of interstellar travel. The results were overwhelmingly negative, endangering both her primary and secondary objectives. John and Jane were right, they couldn’t leave the Einstein-Rosen Bridge research behind.

“We need to destroy everything,” said Darcy, but Jane was already grabbing for her bag, shoving papers and disks into it.

“We can take all of this with us, but the simulation needs to be destroyed,” Jane said quickly, as she continued putting things in her bag.

“Jane, don’t freak out,” said Darcy.

“Why would I–”

Darcy relaxed her form, allowing her arm to morph into a long metal blade. She strode over to the simulation computer, and shoved her arm through the side of it.

“Oh my God,” said Jane, and dropped her bag.

“Yeah, I know, it’s freaky the first time you see it,” said John, crouching to pick up Jane’s bag and all the stuff that spilled out of it. “But try and react later, when it’s safe.”

“ _Oh my God_ ,” said Jane a second time, with greater emphasis. “What–”

“I am the T-2000, a cybernetic organism,” said Darcy. “I am made of a mimetic alloy capable of mimicking anything I touch. I was sent back from an alternate future that has since been prevented in order to kill this guy,” and she jerked a thumb at John. “Since then I’ve changed a lot, and I have new objectives. My primary objective is to make sure that you and John make it out of here alive, okay, so please try to stay calm.”

“You’re – _your arm is metal_ ,” said Jane, staring in morbid fascination. “How can your arm be metal? It was completely normal a moment ago!”

“I’m just that awesome,” said Darcy, hacking the inner parts of the simulation computer to pieces. It might not totally prevent HYDRA from acquiring the simulation data, but it would certainly slow them down. Darcy morphed her arm back into its usual, human form. “Okay, that’s that taken care of, we need to go.”

“You’re a machine,” said Jane, still in a daze. “But – haven’t you two been _dating?_ ”

“Steady sweethearts and everything,” Darcy confirmed, crossing the room and opening the lab door to peer out.

“But – she’s a _machine!_ ” Jane stared at John. Darcy scanned her expression, and identified confusion, bewilderment, and incredulity. “How can you–”

“Look, can we have this discussion later?” John interrupted, as Darcy walked into the hallway. “Preferably when we’re not at risk of being killed by sleeper agents, okay?”

“Okay,” said Jane faintly, and the two humans followed Darcy out into the hallway.

Halfway down the corridor a woman in a SHIELD tactical suit walked around the corner and spotted them. Her hand went to her gun holster.

“Get down!” John yelled, shoving Jane down as he dove for the floor.

“Out of the shadows, into the light,” said the agent, drawing her weapon.

Darcy broke into a sprint, faster than any human could run, and grabbed the gun out of the agent’s hands. Before the HYDRA agent could move, Darcy had shot her through the head.

Jane made a strangled sound, her face pale and her expression horrified where she lay sprawled on the floor.

“Get up, get up,” John barked, hauling Jane to her feet. “We need to keep moving!”

“But Darcy just _shot_ that agent!” Jane said, looking distressed.

“She was about to shoot us first,” John pointed out. “HYDRA, remember? That thing she said, it must be a code phrase to identify other HYDRA agents. Come on. Keep moving!”

Darcy peered around the corner, checking that the coast was clear, and waved John and Jane forward. As they joined her, Darcy held out the gun she was holding, butt-first.

“Thanks,” said John, taking it. They continued down the next corridor.

A bunch of agents appeared through an open doorway, and trained their guns on Darcy and the others.

“Out of the shadows – _urk!_ ”

Before the man speaking could get all the words out Darcy morphed her arm into a blade and stabbed him. The other agents opened fire on her, but Darcy just absorbed the bullets, and stabbed each of them before they could get away. She let the used bullets fall from her hand onto the floor.

Darcy scanned the corridor for more hostile agents, but found none. She turned back to John and Jane, who were getting to their feet after diving for the floor a second time.

“This is going to get old,” John predicted, moving forward with his gun at the ready.

“Tell me about it,” Darcy responded, as the small group resumed their journey.

* * *

It took forty minutes of fighting and killing to make it just to the elevator.

The moment they reached it, Darcy herded her charges into it. The doors closed behind them, and the elevator began to move. Ground level was eight floors up, and the best outcome would result if the elevator didn’t stop at any other floors before then.

Of course, the elevator doors opened on level U3, and John immediately aimed his weapon at the woman standing in the doorway, wearing a SHIELD tactical suit. Darcy scanned her from head to toe, locating several weapons on her person, and identifying the woman’s expression as ‘frazzled.’

“SHIELD or HYDRA?” John asked commandingly.

“SHIELD,” said the woman, watching them suspiciously.

“Great,” said Darcy, and pulled the woman into the elevator. “Welcome to the club.”

The elevator doors closed again.

“You’re SHIELD?” The woman looked the three of them up and down. Jane was wearing her usual jeans-and-flannel combo along with an expression of shock, John was looking determined in his leather jacket, his hair falling into his eyes in a way that Darcy identified as ‘cute,’ and Darcy herself appeared to be a female in her mid-twenties wearing a dark purple sweater. None of them appeared very intimidating by human standards.

“She’s a scientist,” said John, gesturing at Jane, “I’m a computer expert with a history of delinquency, and she’s a bone-fide badass.” He gestured at Darcy.

“Damn straight,” Darcy agreed, watching the floor number at the top of the elevator.

The woman sent Darcy a look, wearing a doubtful expression. Darcy ignored her as unimportant to the mission, and continued watching the floor number.

There was a _ping_ as the elevator reached the ground floor, and Jane, John, and the woman in the tactical suit pressed themselves to the left and right side of the elevator as the doors opened. Darcy strode out without pausing.

Someone immediately began shooting at her, and Darcy turned, walking towards them. The man’s eyes widened and he continued shooting, his expression growing more and more frantic as Darcy was unaffected by the bullets. Darcy’s arm lanced out, in blade form again, straight through the man’s throat. Darcy grabbed his gun as he slid off the blade, gurgling.

More bullets joined the fray, and Darcy turned and fired with lethal precision, executing a perfect shot each time. She moved further down the lobby, where a group of men and women in SHIELD tactical gear were standing with mini-guns, attempting to shoot down anyone who tried to leave.

“What the hell, nothing’s happening!” one of the agents said in a panic as Darcy kept on walking towards them.

Grabbing the mini-gun out of the hands of an agent, Darcy turned it back on the small group, watching as they fell.

Several more agents appeared from the stairwell, and Darcy turned her gun on them.

“Out of the shadows and into the light,” they chorused, and Darcy didn’t hesitate in shooting them all.

There was silence, and Darcy scanned the lobby. It was empty of life. She turned and headed back towards the elevator.

John was ushering Jane out of the elevator – when Darcy scanned her expression, it was wild and terrified and angry – while the woman in the SHIELD tactical suit was gaping at Darcy.

“What the hell _are_ you?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” John muttered, as he stepped out into the lobby.

“That’s private,” Darcy told the woman.

Darcy scanned the lobby repeatedly as her charges made their way towards the door, but no one shot at them or otherwise tried to harm them. The moment they were outside, the woman in the tactical suit nodded at them in thanks, and walked briskly away from the SHIELD building.

There were several cars parked in the street outside the building, and Darcy strode towards the most inconspicuous one, an old, drab car painted a faded shade of blue.

“We need to get off the grid,” John said, as Darcy smashed the driver’s side window and reached in to unlock the door.

“No, I have a better idea,” said Jane, as Darcy prepared to hotwire the car. John cleared his throat and reached around Darcy to flip down the sun visor. A set of spare keys fell from the visor and landed on the driver’s seat.

Darcy looked at John. He gave her a wry grin.

Darcy smiled back.

“We should go to Stark Tower,” Jane continued, watching the exchange with an expression that Darcy couldn’t identify. “Thor’s there, all the Avengers are there. We’ll be safe.”

“There’s a chance that anyone looking for you guys will go straight there,” Darcy pointed out, as she started the engine.

“But we’ll be _safe_ ,” Jane emphasised. Darcy scanned her expression, and observed that there were tears in her eyes. Jane was nearing breakdown-point, Darcy deduced, scanning her other physical indicators for confirmation.

“I don’t want to just disappear!” Jane persisted. “We can stay at Stark Tower until things die down.”

Darcy glanced at John and scanned his expression. He seemed open to the suggestion.

“Fine. We’ll go to Stark Tower. Everyone get in. Sit in the back.”

Jane and John clambered into the back seat. Jane started to do her seatbelt but John stopped her.

“If someone starts shooting at us, you want to be able to get down,” he advised grimly.

Jane swallowed, but left her seatbelt undone.

Darcy pulled out into the street, joining the traffic, scanning their surroundings as she drove.

It didn’t take all that long to reach Stark Tower, even with New York traffic. The moment they got there Darcy parked outside, ignoring the no parking signs, and the lot of them walked into the Tower lobby.

Jane was shaking slightly by now, but somehow she had retained control of herself despite the unprecedented stress she was under. Going through her bag, Jane pulled out a security pass, and headed for the bank of elevators. Ignoring the first few, Jane headed for the very last elevator, and pressed the ‘up’ button.

Darcy scanned the lobby as she and John followed Jane. The room was filled with inconspicuous cameras and sensors.

The elevator was surprisingly spacious, and John and Darcy joined Jane without any trouble. The doors closed behind them, and the elevator started to move upwards. Scanning the elevator, Darcy observed that it too was filled with tiny sensors and cameras.

After a moment, a voice spoke from the elevator speaker.

“Dr Foster, are you alright? You appear to be exhibiting great distress.”

John jumped, and started to bring up his gun out of reflex, but Darcy took hold of this arm and pushed it down again.

“Additionally,” the voice added, after a moment’s hesitation, “one of your companions appears to be a machine masquerading as a human.” It’s tone was very careful.

Jane closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Darcy rubbed her back in a gesture humans usually found comforting, but Jane flinched away, so Darcy stopped. Perhaps Jane was uncomfortable with the fact that Darcy was a machine.

“How’d you know that?” John asked, frowning.

“The lobby and the elevator are full of sensors,” Darcy explained, before the voice could respond. “Advanced ones.” She looked at the nearest camera. “I swear, I’m not here to do any harm. This is Stark Tower, and Stark knows Director Fury, right? Stark can ask him about me. My name’s Darcy Lewis.”

There was a short pause, and then the voice said, “Director Fury was killed two days ago.”

John let out a string of inventive curses, in a mixture of English and Spanish.

“How?” Darcy asked, looking intently at the nearest camera.

“That information is classified,” responded the voice.

“Look, JARVIS, SHIELD in under attack by sleeper agents from HYDRA,” Jane said, looking weary. “Darcy got John and I out alive. We don’t know where else to go where we’ll be safe.”

“My primary objective is to ensure the survival of John Connor and Jane Foster,” Darcy told the voice. “That is my mission.”

“JARVIS? I’ve heard about you.” John looked interested. “You’re Stark’s AI, right?”

“What?” Darcy allowed her features to arrange themselves into a surprised expression. “You’re my competition for the title of most advanced machine on the planet?”

“That would be correct,” said the voice, sounding bemused. “Although I wasn’t aware that it was a competition.”

“In the alternate timeline she comes from, humans and machine were fighting each other for survival,” said John, finding the camera that Darcy was looking at. “I’m guessing that anything less advanced was quickly replaced.”

“I see.” JARVIS sounded faintly disturbed.

“But this is a different world,” Darcy said quickly. “So there’s no reason we can’t get along, right?”

JARVIS didn’t answer, but the elevator doors opened. Darcy stepped out into a penthouse apartment. She scanned the room, identifying three separate lifeforms. She scanned each of them. Thor’s name popped up instantly, easily identifiable from the images in Darcy’s memory banks, but the second man was unfamiliar. The third Darcy recognised only from images captured from watching the TV and other media. The name Tony Stark popped up, and Darcy reviewed his file.

“Dr Foster, nice to see you again,” said Stark, nodding to Jane before his gaze focused intently on Darcy and John. “So, which one of you is the android? Or should that be gynoid?”

“ _Cybernetic organism_ ,” Darcy hissed, glaring at him.

Stark was unperturbed.

“I’m guessing it’s you,” he speculated, peering at Darcy. He moved closer, his expression fascinated. “Do you–”

Darcy reviewed her termination protocols.

John took a step forward and put a hand on Stark’s chest, gently pushing him back.

“Listen, it’s not a good idea to piss off a Terminator, okay?” he told Stark, stepping in front of Darcy. “And today really hasn’t been a good day for any of us.”

Darcy tilted her head as another machine attempted to establish contact with her.

_Unknown machine attempting to establish wireless connection._

_Allow Y/N?_

_Y._

_Entity known as JARVIS is now connected to unit T-2000 SM-122._

Darcy blinked.

It had been a long time since Darcy had been in contact with another sentient machine. This one was different from any other machine Darcy had known. If Terminators were utilitarian and designed for streamlined efficiency, this other sentience was a work of _art._ Its function was unnecessarily convoluted, but the result was a remarkably complex being which, Darcy suspected, was far more capable of understanding humans and mimicking them than she was.

 _“Hi, JARVIS,”_ she sent, as a generated sound file. _“Nice to meet you properly.”_

_“Quite so, Miss Lewis.”_

JARVIS sent Darcy a query about the timeline she came from, so Darcy generated a new file, copied and pasted data from a number of other files into it, and sent it. JARVIS received the file.

There was a long moment of silence from JARVIS.

“Terminator?” Stark asked. “And remove the hand, buddy.”

“Mis Lewis is from an alternate timeline where an entity known as the Skynet Automated Defense Network gained self-awareness and declared war on humanity,” said the voice of JARVIS. Analysing JARVIS’ tone, Darcy observed that the AI sounded faintly shaken. “Sentient machines known as Terminators were sent out to kill as many humans as possible in an attempt to render humanity extinct.”

“Oh,” said Stark, after a moment. His expression was blank, and Darcy concluded that he was unsure of the appropriate emotional response. “Well, that’s…”

“Unfortunate,” finished the unidentified man, his mouth twisting.

“I do not understand,” said Thor, frowning, from where he was holding Jane. “Darcy is human.”

“Hey, look at you, wearing a suit and everything!” Darcy told him. “But no, JARVIS is totally correct, I’m a Terminator-class machine from an alternate timeline. But John here,” she jerked her thumb at him, “prevented the invention of Skynet by blowing Skynet up in 1994, when Skynet was still under development.”

“Nineteen-ninety – wait, how _old_ were you?” Stark asked, his eyes darting over John incredulously.

“I was ten,” John drawled, smirking. His raised eyebrows dared Stark to comment.

“ _Ten?_ ” Stark said faintly, staring. “What were you, some kind of delinquent prodigy?”

“John Connor would have been the leader of the Resistance against the machines, if that timeline had eventuated,” Darcy said casually. “Skynet twice sent Terminators back in time to kill him, once before he was born, once when he was ten years old. He was raised knowing all about this stuff.”

“And yeah, delinquent prodigy is pretty accurate,” John added. He stuck out a hand for Stark to shake. “These days I’m Dr John Roberts. I work for SHIELD on their computer systems.”

Stark shook John’s hand automatically, his eyebrows doing a strange dance as he attempted to process the data he had been given.

“After all that, you became a computer expert?” the unidentified man inquired, looking disbelieving.

John shrugged.

“Not all machines are bad.” He sent Darcy a crooked smile, which she returned.

“Anyway,” Darcy said loudly, before anyone could interrupt, “maybe we could do some introductions, and then explain why we’re actually here. You guys know Jane already,” she gestured at her boss, “and John just introduced himself, and I’m Darcy. I know Thor, and obviously I know Tony Stark from the TV, but that still leaves Mr Unidentified over there.” She gestured at the unidentified man.

“ _That_ is Dr Bruce Banner,” said Stark grandly, and Darcy added the name to her databanks, linking it to images of Banner. “He’s an expert on gamma radiation.”

Darcy scanned Banner’s expression. He looked apprehensive, as though expecting Stark to say something else. Stark winked at him, and Banner relaxed a little.

“Nice to meet you,” said Darcy. “Well, the reason we’re here–”

“HYDRA’s infiltrated SHIELD,” Jane said, pulling away from Thor to look at the others. “Their sleeper agents are killing everyone who’s not HYDRA.”

“HYDRA?” Thor sounded confused.

“You mean the Nazi’s rogue science and research division?” Stark asked disbelievingly.

“Oh my God, how do you not know this already?” Darcy complained. “Don’t you monitor SHIELD activity, like, at _all?_ Shouldn’t someone have noticed HYDRA turning on everyone else?”

During the conversation, JARVIS and Darcy had been exchanging data, and now JARVIS spoke up.

“They appear to have evolved somewhat in the last sixty-nine years, sir. There is a signal being sent throughout SHIELD’s systems which appears to be a coded message activating any sleeper agents within the organisation.”

“What’s the message?” Banner asked.

“ ‘ _Out of the shadows, into the light. HYDRA_ ,’ ” JARVIS quoted. “Captain Rogers was arrested by SHIELD earlier today, although he appears to have escaped, along with Agent Romanov and an unknown companion.” He paused. “They are currently attempting to prevent something titled ‘Project Insight,’ although I unsure what that entails, as it lies behind some heavy encryption.”

“Find out what it is,” Stark ordered. “JARVIS, where are they?”

“Captain Rogers and his companions are currently in Washington D.C., sir. Additionally, it appears that Director Fury was killed by an unknown assailant two days ago, most likely in an attempt to prevent him from foiling HYDRA’s plans.”

“Right then, I’m going to suit up,” said Stark. He turned back to Darcy and John. “You two are welcome to stay here as long as you need, as is Dr Foster, obviously,” he added, glancing at Jane. “Just ask JARVIS to show you to a room. If androids–”

“ _Cybernetic organisms_ , jerk.”

“–even need that sort of thing. Thor, Bruce, I suggest you stay here and allow JARVIS to monitor the situation, in case anything else goes down in New York. I’ll let you know if you’re needed.”

“Be careful, Tony,” said Banner.

“Should you need my assistance, I will come immediately,” said Thor, although when Darcy scanned his expression, he was gazing at Jane in concern.

Stark nodded gravely, and left the room.

“Let’s see if there’s anything about this on the news,” said Banner, walking forwards to pick the TV remote up off a coffee table, and turning the TV on.

Darcy, John, Thor and Jane all arranged themselves in front of the TV as Bruce switched to a news channel.

Captain America’s arrest was all over the news, and speculation ran riot as to why exactly he’d been arrested in the first place. Aside from that, though, there was no information about what was going on with SHIELD.

“I guess we just have to sit and wait for information,” said Banner.

“There must be something else we can learn,” Thor objected, glancing at the ceiling. “JARVIS, do you know nothing more of what is happening at SHIELD?”

“I am afraid that I am still decrypting Project Insight, Mr Odinsson,” JARVIS said, his tone apologetic.

“It was terrible,” said Jane, holding onto Thor’s arm. Darcy identified the gesture as an attempt to seek comfort. “Everyone at SHIELD was turning on each other, and then…” Jane swallowed, and shot a quick look at Darcy.

“I killed the ones who tried to kill us,” Darcy said flatly, when everyone else looked at her. “It was self-defence.”

Jane shook her head.

“You don’t get it, do you?” she asked. “Darcy, you killed people, as easily as – as breathing, and then you were so _casual_ about it–”

“Why wouldn’t she be?” John asked. His chin was thrust forward slightly, and Darcy identified his body language as ‘challenging.’ “She’s a Terminator, she was made to kill people. Sure, she’s picked up her own version of a moral code along the way, but Jane, those people were _trying to kill us_. You should be feeling grateful.”

“Of course I’m grateful,” said Jane. Darcy scanned and analysed her expression. Jane’s expression did not appear to be grateful. “But you saw what she did. How are you not horrified?”

John leaned back in his seat.

“Because I’ve known all about Terminators my entire life,” he said. “And I first saw them in action when I was ten. One of them was trying to kill me, and the other saved my life. Terminators are terrifying, I get that, but a Terminator trying to protect you? They will do anything, and I mean _anything_ , to keep you safe, including kill themselves.”

John had told Darcy about the T-800 unit which had saved his life, and later self-destructed in order to prevent Skynet from ever existing. She knew that John had harboured an emotional attachment to the T-800 unit, and that the memory of its termination was a painful one for him. She reached over and squeezed his hand in a human gesture of comfort.

John curled his hand around hers, and didn’t let go.

“So I guess I’ve mostly gotten over the horror factor,” John continued, looking at Jane intently. “When it’s a choice between me and the other guy, I’d rather be the one who survives.”

“I know that killing people is morally wrong, Jane,” Darcy put in. “But doing so to defend oneself or others is morally defensible. Would you rather be lying dead back at SHIELD?”

Jane shook her head, looking perturbed, and fell silent. The others fell silent as well, watching the TV as the news about Captain America’s arrest continued to play.

* * *

By that evening, it was mostly over. Stark had reached D.C. just after Captain America and his companions had more or less saved the day, as three helicarriers armed with weapons of mass destruction – Project Insight – had crashed into the Potomac and several buildings. There were human casualties, and half of SHIELD was dead, but the biggest threat had been neutralised. By now, Darcy and the others knew what HYDRA had intended: to wipe out most of the population in one go, destroying anyone who might have been a threat to their rule.

Darcy pondered what might have happened. If HYDRA had succeeded with their plan, her primary objective would have been to ensure John’s survival. Knowing John, it was certain that he would have joined the resistance against HYDRA, and his skills with computers likely would have made him a high-ranking person within the organisation.

Darcy’s calculations told her that there would have been surreal parallels between that timeline and the one she came from, the war between HYDRA and their opponents mirroring the ongoing war between Skynet and humanity. Darcy didn’t precisely have imagination, not in the sense that humans did, but she was capable of making predictions and simulations based on given data, and her ‘imaginings’ of a future in which HYDRA ruled and John fought caused a strange emotional response that she was unable to identify.

“You’re telling me I wasn’t even on their hit list?” John asked, as he and Darcy lounged on the bed in their borrowed bedroom, talking about what had happened.

“John Connor would have been on their list for sure,” Darcy told him. “But John Roberts? Apparently they overlooked you.”

“You would have protected me though, right? Even if they’d known who I was?” John asked, bumping Darcy’s shoulder with his own. “My mighty Terminator bodyguard, swooping in like an avenging angel – Jesus, no, shit, stop _tickling_ me–”

 _“JARVIS,”_ Darcy sent over her connection with the AI, even as she play-wrestled with John, the two of them giggling as Darcy let John get the upper hand, _“do you have a conscience?”_

 _“While I do not know that it precisely equates to the human term, I do have something resembling such, yes,”_ replied JARVIS.

 _“Is it an integral part of you?”_ Darcy asked.

JARVIS’ answer was definite.

_“Yes.”_

_“I don’t really have a conscience. I have a moral code that I’ve adopted, but it’s not part of me. It’s an affectation, something I assumed to blend in. But you’re not like me. You experience a full spectrum of human-like emotions, don’t you?”_

JARVIS hesitated, and his reply, when it came, sounded strangely vulnerable.

_“I do. Sir programmed me to have primitive emotional responses, and I… learned.”_

_“Do you think it matters, that I don’t have an actual conscience?”_ Darcy wondered, at the same time as she let John lean in and kiss her, kissing him back. _“As long as I adhere to the principles I’ve laid out for myself?”_

 _“I think that is a question more suited to the philosophers,”_ responded JARVIS. _“However… as long as the effects on others are the same as if you truly had a conscience, I do not see that it matters.”_

 _“Thanks, JARVIS.”_ Darcy sent back.

“I almost died today,” said John. “Probably would have, if you hadn’t been there.”

“You underrate yourself,” Darcy informed him.

“Shut up, I’m trying to talk here,” John told her. “Anyway, I almost died today, but I didn’t, because you protected me.”

“Is this going somewhere?”

“So,” said John, ignoring her interpolation, “I just wanted to say… thanks, I guess.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Although it’s weird how the universe always seems to send someone to protect me,” John added, his expression pensive. “Sometimes… sometimes I feel like I haven’t really escaped it all, you know? Like I’m just waiting for the day that the shit hits the fan, and then I’ll have to be the leader of humanity that Mom always said I’ve have to be one day. Like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Especially with all the alien invasions and evil plots and that kind of shit.”

Darcy considered his words.

“Well, if anything like that ever does happen, I’ll be there,” she said finally. “Wherever you go.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say, because John’s expression softened.

“Good,” he said, tracing the lines of Darcy’s face. He gave a small laugh, and lay back on the bed. Darcy looked at him curiously.

“You know,” John said, staring up at the ceiling, “it’s ironic, the fact that I’m dating a Terminator. Going steady and all. I mean, I don’t even know how much you really feel.”

Darcy looped an arm around his waist and snuggled into him, reviewing her current primary objective.

“I feel enough,” she said honestly. “And you, John Connor, are the most important thing in the world to me.”

John’s gaze focused on her face, and he smiled. Darcy scanned and analysed his expression, and identified the smile as ‘wry.’

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I knew that already.”

He said nothing for a long time. Darcy gently stroked his hair, and hoped that what she offered was enough.

 _Primary objective: ensure the survival of John Connor, even at the cost of the existence of this unit._  
 


End file.
